Temporal distribution of air quality related to meteorology and road traffic in Madrid

• Published in: Environmental monitoring and assessment Vol. 187; no. 4; p. 220
• Main Authors: Perez-Martinez, Pedro J., Miranda, Regina M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.04.2015; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Air Pollutants - analysis; Air pollution; Air quality; Air temperature; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Carbon dioxide; Case studies; Climate; Climate change; Climatology; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecology; Ecotoxicology; Emissions; Energy consumption; Environment; Environmental impact; Environmental Management; Environmental Monitoring; Meteorological Concepts; Meteorology; Models, Theoretical; Monitoring/Environmental Analysis; Outdoor air quality; Particulate Matter - analysis; Pollutants; Precipitation; Regression analysis; Spain; Temperature; Temporal distribution; Traffic; Traffic congestion; Transportation; Urban areas; Vehicle Emissions; Vehicles; Velocity; VOCs; Volatile organic compounds; Wind; Wind speed; Spain; Climatology; Air pollution modeling; Road traffic; Spain
• ISSN: 0167-6369; 1573-2959
• DOI: 10.1007/s10661-015-4452-3

The impact of climatology—air temperature, precipitation and wind speed—and road traffic—volume, vehicle speed and percentage of heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs)—on air quality in Madrid was studied by estimating the effect for each explanatory variable using generalized linear regression models controlling for monthly variations, days of week and parameter levels. Every 1 m/s increase in wind speed produced a decrease in PM 10 concentrations by 10.3 % (95 % CI 12.6–8.6) for all weekdays and by 12.4 % (95 % CI 14.9–9.8) for working days (up to the cut-off of 2.4 m/s). Increases of PM 10 concentrations due to air temperature (7.2 % (95 % CI 6.2–8.3)) and traffic volume (3.3 % (95 % CI 2.9–3.8)) were observed at every 10 °C and 1 million vehicle-km increases for all weekdays; oppositely, slight decreases of PM 10 concentrations due to percentage of HDVs (3.2 % (95 % CI 2.7–3.7)) and vehicle speed (0.7 % (95 % CI 0.6–0.8)) were observed at every 1 % and 1 km/h increases. Stronger effects of climatology on air quality than traffic parameters were found.